Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-198) and index

Ancien régime -- Out of alchemy -- Le principe oxygine -- The chemical revolution -- The end of the year one

Antoine Lavoisier--who lived at the zenith of the Enlightenment and died at the hands of the French Revolution--was himself a revolutionary. Closely followed by the burgeoning international scientific community, he competed with the best minds of his time to be the first to explain how chemical processes really work. Aided by a large fortune and his accomplished wife, he employed the most ingenious and expensive technology of his time in a series of innovative experiments that forever buried medieval alchemy and established a chemical language still in use today. Yet his personal triumph was short-lived, and the glory his achievement brought France could not protect him from the ravages of the Terror.--From publisher description

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